Mahant Dharamdas, a trustee of the Ram Janambhoomi Nyas, moved a Faizabad court on Thursday seeking the replacement of managing trustee Ashok Singhal and president Ramchandra Paramhans Das for alleged irregularities in its functioning.

Das, who is president of the Vishwa Dharm Parishad, also sought the ouster of Nyas treasurer Vishnu Hari Dalmiya and trustee Ram Bilas Vedanti and their replacement with suitable persons so that the aims and objectives of the trust can be achieved.

Das's counsel S K Mishra told reporters in Faizabad that the court issued notices to the parties concerned to file their replies and fixed April 21 as the date for the next hearing.

The petitioner prayed that the Nyas be directed to make public its entire income and expenditure and submit a statement to the court. He also urged the court to curb the extravagant spending for personal purposes by some trustees of the money collected from the public to build a Ram temple at Ayodhya.

Mahant Dharamdas said the four trustees should be restrained from spreading religious and communal hatred.

The petitioner said the Nyas was registered in New Delhi with its office at the Sankat Mochan Ashram on December 18, 1985, by Swami Shivramacharya. Its main aim: the construction of a Ram temple. Other objectives included renovation of the campus, beautification of the area, and proper arrangements for puja and archana.

Yet another aim was to make efforts to establish coordination between different faiths and set up hospitals and human welfare centres for the promotion of cultural education and Sanskrit.

The petition said Dharamdas surrendered his property and the Ram Katha Mandap situated near the Babri Masjid, which he had inherited from his guru, the late Mahant Abhiramdas, to the trust on April 28, 1986, and was nominated a trustee of the Nyas. But the aims of the trust remained unfulfilled and Mahant Dharamdas was shooed away from the meeting of the Nyas when he asked for the statement of accounts.

The petitioner said the trust had deviated from its aims and its members and office-bearers had become puppets in the hands of political organisations. He alleged that the trust received crores of rupees and several lakhs of consecrated bricks during the Ram temple agitation, but there was no record of income and expenditure. Now some of the bricks had been shifted to Karsewakpuram in Ayodhya for construction there.